Marcase: Precarious time for the NCAA

Both may mean an end to how you and I currently watch and follow college sports.

The first came courtesy of perhaps the most powerful man in college athletics, and I'm not talking about Mark Emmert, the former LSU chancellor and current executive director of the NCAA.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive opened the annual summer SEC Footballpalooza fest in Birmingham this past week with his state of the SEC address.

Among the topics he spoke about was the lack of action on the part of the NCAA to address rules enforcement and funding the full cost of schooling.

As most everyone who follows college sports knows, NCAA recruiting rules may be the most minute, archaic laws in the land. It is absurd that coaches may not even say hello to recruits in passing during certain times of the year. Yet, it is permissible for coaching staffs to flood a recruit with hundreds of pieces of mail in a single day.

And this doesn't even include day-to-day rules governing athletes and coaches. Slive, and most everyone else, would prefer a more streamlined, common sense approach to the rules, as well as the enforcement of said rules.

The biggest scandal the NCAA has had to deal with lately hasn't involved a school, but its enforcement staff, eroding any credibility the NCAA may have had in this area.

But the 500-ton gorilla currently hovering over the NCAA deals with money.

The NCAA is currently flush with money, and once it agrees with a TV contract to show the Division I-A (sorry, I refuse to call it by its official Bowl Subdivision nonsensical name) playoffs that begin with the 2014 season, it will add even more to its coffers.

Which is why this is a precarious time for the NCAA.

The Ed O'Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA over the use of a player's image in video games, notably EA Sports, threatens to change the course of the NCAA.

A few days ago, the NCAA elected not to renew its contract with the EA Sports for its popular college football video game. You can't tell me that decision is not related to the lawsuit.

The O'Bannon suit, which was filed by the former UCLA basketball star, along with several others, including most recently six student-athletes, is asking a court why the NCAA should continue to profit over his likeness and image while he receives no compensation. The suit should have the NCAA squirming if nothing else.

It's amazing how much money the NCAA and its member schools continue to make off its athletes, who receive no pay other than some type of a scholarship. And, as we see with Slive's concern, those scholarships often don't cover the athlete's full expense of attending college.

Should O'Bannon win his suit and a large damage award, the landscape of college athletics will immediately change.

That's why the storm clouds are gathering.

The schools of the five big conferences - SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 - along with Notre Dame, are in near agreement with Slive's full-funding argument. The problem is, despite their clout, those schools are in the minority since there are nearly 350 Division I institutions.

How much longer will the big five want to continue funding the remainder of Division I athletics? Consider the TV contracts these five conferences have signed in recent months:

? SEC: $3 billion from ESPN and CBS

? Pac-12: $3 billion from Fox and ESPN

? Big 12: $2.6 billion from ESPN

? ACC: deal with ESPN through 2027 worth an estimated $20 million per school when Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville and Notre Dame in all sports but football come aboard by next season

? Big Ten: not sure amount, but each school is receiving more than $25 million this year in TV revenue.

It seems to me, the rest of the schools that make up the NCAA would be wise to listen to Slive. Or the gravy train they've been riding may soon leave the station.